"This is the offering of Aaron." (Lev. 6:13) Rabbi
Hizkiyah opened with the verse: "G-d is righteous in all His ways,
and gracious in all His works." (Psalms 145:17) We learned how much men
should look at the glory of their Master [to help his good inclination
prevail over his evil inclination, to walk in the straight path in the service
of his Creator] and not deviate from their ways outwards [to the side of
impurity], for each and every day there is a decision impending upon the
world. The world was created and exists in judgment.
For each and every day, judgment dwells in the world...
Man should therefore keep himself
from sinning, since he knows not the time when judgment will rest upon him. He
sits at home and judgment rests upon him, he goes outside his house and judgment
dwells on him, and he cannot know whether he shall return home or not. When
traveling, all the more so, since then judgment [surely] goes out
before him, as written: "judgment goes before him." (Psalms 85:14)
Man should therefore hasten to ask for mercy before the King, to be saved from
the judgment when it dwells upon the world. For each and every day, judgment
dwells in the world, as it says: "And an E-l/G-d who is indignant every day."
(Psalms 7:12) [Our Sages say, man should always preface his prayers
concerning any distress by arousing upon himself mercy from heaven to
sweeten judgment.]
Now is the time to raise a
question. We learned, and our colleagues have remarked, that the name 'E-l'
is always of chesed, as written: "The Great [signifying
chesed] E-l." (Deut. 10:17) This is the illumination of the
supernal chochma [which illuminates chesed, and there is no judgment
in it at all]. You say, "And an E-l who is indignant every day"
(Psalms 7:12) in which the verse disregards all those names [such as
Elo-kim, that signifies judgment] and holds on [specifically] to
this [name E-l, which signifies mercy, is indignant] These matters
are not stable then. It is
also written: "A mighty E-l" (Isaiah 9:5) [here E-l is next
to gevura/might]; we need to establish that it is either of
judgment or of mercy.
...the
wicked turn even mercy into judgment...
I have heard this, that the
wicked turn [even] mercy into judgment [even though
E-l is kindness,
they have turned even the merciful E-l into an indignant one], for
throughout the supernal Sefirot of the Holy King there are none in which
[a little] mercy is not included within judgment, and [a little]
judgment within mercy. The wicked [blemish the supernal Sefirot
through their wicked actions and] turn mercy into judgment [strengthen
the judgment within mercy so that it now prevails].
Rabbi Yehuda said to him: This is
a good explanation for the [verse] that says: "A mighty E-l ," but
[what of the verse that says:] "And a E-l who is indignant every day"
(Psalms 7:12) meaning, E-l is of judgment each and every day,
whether people in the world be righteous or not? [We can't explain it by saying
that the wicked transform the mercy into judgment every day; this isn't
possible.] He was not able to reply.
They went to ask Rabbi Shimon. He said to
them: Surely, E-l is indignant every day. It has already been explained
by our colleagues that it [E-l] is at times judgment and at times mercy.
If people of the world have merit, the Name E-l prevails as chesed.
If they have no merit, it prevails as 'Might'. That is on a daily basis.
The better explanation is that
E-l is universally the illumination of the supernal chochma [which
is complete chesed]. It prevails daily, as written: "The Mercy of
E-l endures continually" (Psalms 52:3) [every day draws from the arousal
of the attribute of chesed]. Were it not for the awakening of
it in the world, the world would not have endured for an instant under the harsh
judgments daily aroused in the world. Hence, "these are the generations of
the heaven and of the earth when they were created." (Gen. 2:4) Do not read
it Be'Hibaram ['when they were created'], but [by switching
around the letters] as Be'Abraham ['by Abraham']. Heaven and
earth remain through Abraham awakening [and arousing the attribute of
chesed in the world]. When Abraham stirred himself in the world,
he pushes away all the judgments that are present each and every day, and they
can not stand up to him.
E-l is indignant at the judgments
and He pushes them outside...
"And an E-l who is indignant
every day": It does not say 'E-l is angry' or 'made indignant',
but that E-l is indignant [at others], for each and every
day that there is a decree, [E-l is indignant at the judgments
and] He pushes them outside, and He remains to perfume [and to sweeten
the judgment of] the world. Hence, it is written: "G-d will command
His love in the daytime [and sweeten all judgment]." (Psalms
42:9) Were it not for this, the world would not have been able to remain
even for a single moment [because judgment would have overpowered all].
The existence of everything is therefore due to Abraham.
BeRahamim LeHayyim:
We are privy above to a Zoharic discussion what the
Holy Name E-l stands for: is it of mercy or is it of judgment?
And then the nice soft landing: the Name E-l is indeed related to
chesed/lovingkindness, all due to the merit of our first father Abraham --
related also to the upcoming Passover Holiday -- who served G-d through the
attribute of chesed so well he eventually became a Chariot for Hashem of
this quality. That means that chesed so permeated his entire
existence that he "became" chesed. Most of our early life
lessons relate to chesed: "Everything I ever needed to know I
learned in kindergarten"; most of those rules deal with being kind and nice to
another. May we merit to keep all of our doors open to assist the
stranger -- like Abraham did -- and thus help to build the world. "The
earth is built on kindness." (Psalms 89:3)
[Bracketed annotations from Metok Midevash and Sulam commentaries]
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